In an attempt to catch up with my slew of unwritten reviews, I’m doing a short series of short reviews. Last time I covered The Curse of Chalion, The Realm of Ash, The Ten Thousand Doors of January & Snow Glass Apples
This time, sci-fi books:
- The Calculating Stars By Mary Robinette Kowal
- The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
- The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
- All These Worlds by Dennis E Taylor (Bobiverse book 3)
The Calculating Stars by Mary Robinette Kowal
The blurb:
On a cold spring night in 1952, a huge meteorite fell to earth and obliterated much of the east coast of the United States, including Washington D.C. The ensuing climate cataclysm will soon render the earth inhospitable for humanity, as the last such meteorite did for the dinosaurs. This looming threat calls for a radically accelerated effort to colonize space, and requires a much larger share of humanity to take part in the process.
Elma York’s experience as a WASP pilot and mathematician earns her a place in the International Aerospace Coalition’s attempts to put man on the moon, as a calculator. But with so many skilled and experienced women pilots and scientists involved with the program, it doesn’t take long before Elma begins to wonder why they can’t go into space, too.
Elma’s drive to become the first Lady Astronaut is so strong that even the most dearly held conventions of society may not stand a chance against her.
The Lady Astronaut series has been getting a lot of praise all over the place, and I’m here to join in. I loved both this and the sequel. The books are an alternate history retelling of the space race.
Elma York, our main character, is immensely driven to become an astronaut, she is also beautifully human and imperfect. Her husband, Nathaniel, is also great, and it’s so refreshing to see a functional, supportive relationship in spec-fic, the conflict doesn’t arise from the relationship, their love is what helps them deal with the conflict. Of course, like any marriage, they have ups and downs, but they deal with them.
One of the things I liked most about the series is how it goes deep into an entire range of emotions, highs and lows, while keeping them real. I’m not sure how to explain it, some books feel like the author did a thing to tug at the reader’s heartstrings, whereas here it feels like the heartbreaking things happen organically, and though it may pain her, the author has to tell it like it is.
I think there’s good enough reason to count the Lady Astronaut series as optimistic, but it starts incredibly dark. I knew before going in that it was gonna be bleak at the beginning, but I did not accurately imagine how much it would make me cry. And I’m very glad I read it before shit started hitting the fan, but I see now why it took me so long to write a review.
I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author, which is this case was great. She brought so much emotion to the performance, both when her voice was breaking and when it was filled with joy and wonder.
Despite the exploration and swift-climate change topics, I feel like the bingo square The Calculating Stars fits best is feminism. (Though having someone in power who knows about agriculture in a climate change scenario was a great touch). Predictably the book goes deep into all the challenges women faced in the 50-60s, especially with regards to being taken seriously. All the women in the main cast are highly competent, they’ve got Phds or lots of flight experience, and still, they get dismissed over and over as pretty little things. Maybe to someone who hasn’t lived as a woman this might seem far-fetched, but as someone working in a male-dominated field, I can say we’ve come very far, but I still recognize these people. I also liked how racism was treated in the book. Elma and Nathaniel are both good people from the start, they’re far from raging racists, but they do have blindspots. They’re oblivious to a lot of the way racism affects those around them, until it gets pointed out, sometimes repeatedly. And then they listen and try to become allies.
Bingo 2020 squares:
Exploration, Feminist, Climate
Links:
The Fated Sky by Mary Robinette Kowal
The blurb:
The Fated Sky continued the grand sweep of alternate history begun in The Calculating Stars. It is 1961, and the International Aerospace Coalition has established a colony on the moon. Elma York, the noted Lady Astronaut, is working on rotation, flying shuttles on the moon and returning regularly to Earth.
But humanity must get a foothold on Mars. The first exploratory mission is being planned, and none of the women astronauts is on the crew list. The international Aerospace Coalition has grave reservations about sending their “Lady Astronauts” on such a dangerous mission. The problem with that is the need for midjourney navigation calculations. The new electronic computation machines are not reliable and not easily programmed. It might be okay for a backup, but there will have to be a human computer on board. And all the computers are women.
I liked book 2 just as much as I liked the first one. It goes into all the same themes, just adding more detail and nuance. Elma’s anxiety and relationship take more strain, we get more background info about some of the other characters, sometimes serving to humanize them. The book also highlights how slow actual progress can be, especially reading it now, there are a lot of correlations to how leaders react in the book, when things don’t seem “bad enough”. The narration was great again, and for the last part of the book I was just standing outside in the garden looking at the stars, hoping it wouldn’t end.
Bingo 2020 squares:
feminist, exploration, climate
Links:
The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers
The blurb:
Follow a motley crew on an exciting journey through space-and one adventurous young explorer who discovers the meaning of family in the far reaches of the universe-in this light-hearted debut space opera from a rising sci-fi star.
Rosemary Harper doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. An introspective young woman who learned early to keep to herself, she’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.
Life aboard the Wayfarer is chaotic and crazy—exactly what Rosemary wants. It’s also about to get extremely dangerous when the crew is offered the job of a lifetime. Tunneling wormholes through space to a distant planet is definitely lucrative and will keep them comfortable for years. But risking her life wasn’t part of the plan. In the far reaches of deep space, the tiny Wayfarer crew will confront a host of unexpected mishaps and thrilling adventures that force them to depend on each other. To survive, Rosemary’s got to learn how to rely on this assortment of oddballs—an experience that teaches her about love and trust, and that having a family isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the universe.
I’m very late to this party, I’d been putting off this book for ages because it sounded too perfect to be true. So I’d been sort of saving it for an especially bleak occasion. Oh, boy, did 2020 provide.
TLWtaSMP was every bit as sweet, cozy, and full of goodness as advertised. I personally didn’t get into it as much as I normally would have, because without a daily commute it took me so much longer to listen to the audiobook than it would normally.
The main selling point is the ship’s crew, and the very supportive and accepting found family they’ve made for themselves. It’s just lovely being with these characters. getting to know them and seeing them interact with each other. I really liked how the main character, Rosemary, starts as an outsider, and then she gets to know everyone, and they’re all (bar one) so friendly and welcoming.
I’d love to live in this world, where people are considerate and accepting. Of course, it’s not perfect, there are still dangers and a few assholes here and there, but I think I’d share Doctor Chef’s enthusiasm in meeting new people and trying new foods.
Which reminds me, another thing I loved about these characters was how passionate they are. Doctor Chef loves talking about herbs and food, the ship’s engineers get so excited about tech stuff, Rosemary is surprisingly into her clerk job. Not entirely related, but Sissix is a cuddly lizard person and I’m all here for cuddly aliens.
I know people say there’s not a lot of plot, but things happen, Dangerous life-threatening things. I particularly liked how to crew reacts, like average people in a situation like that.
Bingo 2020 squares:
exploration, optimistic
Links:
All These Worlds by Dennis E. Taylor
The blurb:
Being a sentient spaceship really should be more fun. But after spreading out through space for almost a century, Bob and his clones just can’t stay out of trouble.
They’ve created enough colonies so humanity shouldn’t go extinct. But political squabbles have a bad habit of dying hard, and the Brazilian probes are still trying to take out the competition. And the Bobs have picked a fight with an older, more powerful species with a large appetite and a short temper.
Still stinging from getting their collective butts kicked in their first encounter with the Others, the Bobs now face the prospect of a decisive final battle to defend Earth and its colonies. But the Bobs are less disciplined than a herd of cats, and some of the younger copies are more concerned with their own local problems than defeating the Others.
Yet salvation may come from an unlikely source. A couple of eighth-generation Bobs have found something out in deep space. All it will take to save the Earth and perhaps all of humanity is for them to get it to Sol — unless the Others arrive first.
I think this book suffered too much from being an ending. It was fine, but not great, feeling too much like it was wrapping things up. While I appreciate the “no loose ends” approach, it was just too much.
I was really excited about the new big threat in book two, but in All These Worlds, it felt very rushed towards the end. The only thread I really liked in this one was Bob’s, the first Bob I mean. That one felt like personal growth happened and there was real progress from A to B.
I know this mini-review is coming out very meh, I did enjoy it, but I think it’s a solid 3 stars, I liked where it ended up, just not how it got there. I think perhaps I would’ve have more fun with it if I’d read it straight after the previous one.
Bingo 2020 squares:
exploration, politics